Rise of Humanity

by <unknown>

  He momentarily stopped in the air, Zhong Yue lifted his other leg and stomped down heavily again – Dong! Another loud thud and the air around was again condensed, slowing down his rate of descent.

  His legs continued stomping in this fashion as the vapors in the air around were condensed and released; a drizzling rain of red started to fall, lightly washing the surroundings with its sanguine hue.

  He was close to the forbidden land, the vapor in the air was not water but blood – his action of stomping the air condensed the blood vapor out of the air!

  Zhong Yue was finally able to disperse his downward momentum, the advantage of a strong psyche was shown, his legs stomped and walked in the air towards the escarpment.

  “This brat, he trained his psyche to such a magnificent level!”

  In mid-air, the Croc Dragon saw what he did and it was shocked, without visualization and he walked in the air, condensing the air beneath his feet and lifting himself up with the reactionary force. In order to do this, it would require a strong psyche and an incredibly explosive force of strength to counteract his downward velocity, it was seemingly improbable even for a monster race like the Croc Dragon.

  And yet, Zhong Yue was able to do it, one could then infer the degree to which the young man had refined his body!

  Zhong Yue incessantly stomped the air and skyrocketed towards the escarpment, but continuously flaring out his strength placed a heavy burden on his body, even with his strong psyche, he wouldn’t be able to sustain another few more steps.

  The Croc Dragon fluttered over with its wings, it had the blood of a Jiao Dragon and Dragon, its body was strong and huge yet agile, When the force of the gale around it tore down onto Zhong Yue, he nearly failed to stomp and condense the air around him.

  “Little brother Zhong, it’s not that the Croc Dragon wants to kill you, but you have made enemies with the wrong person, I owe that person a great deed and I am only here to repay my debt.”

  The huge and humongous Croc Dragon pounced down onto Zhong Yue. Zhong Yue rapidly stomped the air to dodge away from it, he threw a punch at the monster beast’s body but it was left unharmed from the strike due to it’s tough and thick skin.

  Zhong Yue was launched away from Croc Dragon by the reaction force, he quickly stomped his way up to the escarpment, “Who asked you to do this? Croc Dragon, who wants me dead?”

  The Croc Dragon was quiet; it fluttered its wings and flew up right towards Zhong Yue, in a trice, it surpassed him and with its giant tail, it slammed down from the top right at Zhong Yue. It was too quick, Zhong Yue had no time to evade and was sent slamming right down towards the bottom of the escarpment!

  The giant crocodile inhaled a deep breath of air, the surrounding air was all inhaled into its lung. Bereft of the air, Zhong Yue was robbed of his sole means of survival as he finally plummeted down helplessly into the eager forbidden land waiting for him below!

  “I’m sorry, but the debt I owe him is too great, I’m forced to do so….”

  The Croc Dragon flapped its wings and disappeared into the clouds.

  Zhong Yue’s face changed drastically, he stomped incessantly but the raging tempest was too strong, it pressed him down and rendered his efforts an exercise in futility. The steep slopes of the escarpment flashed across became a blur as he continued to accelerate downwards, the bloody flesh meat was exposed in the air without any skins, squirming and creeping like a repulsive bed of worms as the huge veins pulsed, incessantly supplying blood to them.

  On the surface of the slopes were engraved enormous bloody totem carvings that were emanating in faint glimmer of light, it was their presence that repressed the demonic aura and nefarious bloody flesh; the scene that was presented to Zhong Yue was indelibly blood-curdling.

  As he plummeted down, the demonic aura in the air started to pervade his mind; inner evils burgeoned within him, igniting their tempest of wrath and rage in his psyche ocean.

  Zhong Yue’s emotions were slowly growing out of control, his eyes were suffused with a bloody-red light and yet, his thoughts remained calm and steady. The effect of the seal of gods repressed the inner evils and prevented him from being wholly consumed by the demonic aura.

  The black haze that possessed the same appearance as the Devil Soul Yin Effluvium surged towards Zhong Yue. All of a sudden, Xin Huo leaped out from his psyche ocean and stood atop his shoulder. Light rays radiated out from the little flame, fending off the evil haze from Zhong Yue, even the demonic aura and the seal of gods were both cast away from the light barrier around Zhong Yue.

  Dong——

  Zhong Yue reached to the bottom of the escarpment, unlike the usual ground that was paved with soils and rocks, this one he landed on was soft and fleshy – the bloody flesh meat filled the entire landscape.

  As the light barrier emanated by Xin Huo cast away every other element around him, Zhong Yue could once again visualize the Sui Sovereign, smiting away the inner evils within him.

  Thankfully Xin Huo is here with me, or otherwise, the black haze would have taken away my life.

  Zhong Yue heaved a breath of relief, but that was not all, the air above him changed drastically as a heavy load slammed right down, Zhong Yue mustered all his strength and sprinted forward, his heart was filled with shock and anger, This Croc Dragon noticed that I still survived and tried to smash me with big rocks?

  Boom!

  A heavy load crashed down right behind him, Zhong Yue dodge the assault as he was on the verge of getting smashed into minced meat. He turned his head and cast his gaze towards the fallen rock. To his shock, it was not a massive rock but rather, the Croc Dragon itself!

  The giant crocodile’s eyes were wide and glazed in disbelief, an unknown object pierced through its head, leaving behind a huge perforation and a chunk of its brain missing – the Croc Dragon was dead!

  Billowing waves of black haze engulfed the carcass and in a trice, only its gray-white skeleton was left on the ground, sad and dreary.

  Zhong Yue’s body shuddered in the cold but it was even colder in his heart.

  Croc Dragon tried to repay his debt by throwing me down from the escarpment and let the black haze kill me. But the person behind that wanted me dead obliterated its existence so that no one would ever know what had truly transpired here….

  He looked up but his sights were fogged, nothing could be seen other than the heavy black haze.

  Could it be the Shui Tu Clan Qi Practitioner that summoned Junior Martial Sister Shui? No, it can’t be, Croc Dragon owes a great deed to that someone, while it comes from the Lei Hu Clan and was brought here by the Lei Hu Clan, that particular person must be one from the Lei Hu Clan….

  The thoughts frosted his body, the image of the Lei Hu Clan brawny elder came into his mind, Spreading the word that I had the sword token to the disciples, instructing the Croc Dragon to kill me, then killing the Croc Dragon right afterwards, germinating discord within the Swords Gate internally and colluding with the demons externally – what is this particular someone trying to do?

  The flesh meats squirmed around and latched onto the remains of the Croc Dragon, the giant skeleton slowly sunk into the meat, not long later, it would be engulfed by the flesh meat and all vestiges of the Croc Dragon’s existence would disappear from this world.

  Zhong Yue felt the flesh meats starting to creep over his feet, he quickly leaped into the air and tried to stomp his way out. A thousand feet into the air and suddenly, the totem carvings of the seal of gods gleamed, a large barrier appeared above him, forming a ceiling that pressed him down!

  Zhong Yue groaned as he unwillingly fell down!

  The seal of gods!

  This whole place was engraved with the seal of gods, one could only enter but not exit; Zhong Yue was sealed in this forbidden land eternally – he could never escape out from here!

  Chapter 61: The Forebears of Swords Gate |

  “The Croc Dragon is dead, so is the Zhong Shan Clan’s member.”

  I
n the empty hall, ‘Shui Qingyan’ laughed and asked curiously, “However, no matter how discreet you were, their absences will be discovered quickly. If someone entered the cliff bottom and investigated about this matter, they would easily discover the remains of the Croc Dragon and Zhong Shan Clan’s disciple, leading them to identify the murderer from the wound on the croc dragon.”

  “Tian Myriad, you still don’t understand those things that were sealed under the Swords Gate, and the seal of gods.”

  The man hidden in the dark laughed and said, “That is the seal of all gods, whoever falls in would never be able to get out again and no one would dare to go down to have a look. Besides, if someone actually went down, they would not be able to find the remains of the croc dragon and Zhong Yue, because….”

  He smirked and said, “Because they would have been eaten completely, leaving no trace behind. Therefore, no one would ever be able to find out I am the one behind all this. Hahaha!”

  The man hidden in the dark then slowly disappeared before saying carefreely, “Don’t dwell too deeply in this matter, Tian Myriad Mother. All you need to know is that through working with me, you will not lose anything but instead, you will be able to get your revenge after all these years by enslaving the humans in the Great Wilderness. Not only that, your demon race will also be even stronger than before. As for me, all I want is just the thing being sealed under the mountain of Swords Gate….”

  ‘Shui Qingyan’ humphed and walked towards the outside while saying, “Trickster!”

  Meanwhile, under the cliff bottom, Zhong Yue frowned and thought, “With the seal of gods, I’m afraid that I would not be able to get out of here, what should I do now… Hmmm, Xin Huo, did the Devil Soul Yin Effluvium erupt outside of the Swords Gate?”

  Xin Huo looked around curiously and excitedly while he murmured something quietly and he replied, “That’s right, the Devil Soul Yin Effluvium erupted outside the mountain of Swords Gate, just a hundred miles away from Swords Gate. What are you trying to say?”

  Zhong Yue inhaled deeply and said, “The seal of gods in the cliff bottom is extremely strong, but the seal around the place where the Devil Soul Yin Effluvium erupted should be very weak as compared to the seal here. That might be our way out of here. If we want to get out alive, we would have to pass through there, but I have no idea about the dangers lurking in this forbidden place….”

  Xin Huo jumped and said excitingly, “I’ve been wanting to explore the forbidden area of the devil souls! Let’s go, let’s go! We have got to head inside and see what is in there!”

  Zhong Yue nodded as he looked towards the top of the cliff before walking towards the deeper part of this forbidden land.

  “The Great Wilderness belongs to the humans, those from the other races should not simply be allowed to meddle with our land, not to mention us colluding with the other races to bring harm to our people!”

  Zhong Yue’s footsteps were very heavy as he walked atop the flesh. He then thought, “My strength is not enough currently but this won’t last long! The Swords Gate’s headmaster might be old, but I'm definitely not old yet!’

  Flesh could be seen everywhere in this valley. Some of them had incredibly huge blood veins interconnected with each other and these blood veins branched off into smaller blood veins. They looked exactly like a heart pumping blood all over the body as the blood veins would keep on moving from time to time.

  Not only that, these blood veins also extended all over to the walls of the cliff. For an instant, Zhong Yue felt like he had entered into the body of a giant as he looked around.

  As he traveled deeper and deeper, he could see enormous amounts of godly carvings everywhere. These carvings were left behind by the gods and they did not disappear at all even after such a long time.

  Moreover, the seals of the gods were still very effective even after so long. These carvings appeared in a very abstract pattern and they were so strong that Zhong Yue felt an immense sense of danger from them even with just a cursory glance at a fragment of the seals,

  The seals here presented incredibly vast and complicated carvings that were veiled in obscurity. Imagine the number of gods that were involved when the sealing ritual took place!

  Zhong Yue was sure that the purpose of such a vast number of seals being left behind by those gods was more than just sealing the Devil Soul Yin Effluvium.

  “They are hiding something, a secret that is very deep…,” said Zhong Yue and Xin Huo as they looked at each other.

  “Brat Yue, take out the bronze lamp.”

  Xin Huo’s tone suddenly became serious as he said, “The demonic Qi is even stronger here, I’m afraid that it will give birth to something nefarious….”

  “Something evil?”

  Zhong Yue became slightly nervous and he took out the lamp. Xin Huo flew towards the lamp and as he landed on the lamp pith, the lamp became even brighter. Xin Huo then murmured, “If those things that were spawned by the demonic Qi were just soul forms, I would be able to fend them off as they could not penetrate my radiant protection. However, if the demonic Qi spawned a corporeal form, they would become living beings and I would be helpless to fend them off. It will be up to you by then.”

  The lamp was Xin Huo’s sanctuary, which meant that it was more than just an old weathered lamp. However, Xin Huo did not mention anything about the significance of the lamp at all.

  Zhong Yue looked around and all he saw was just an incredibly spacious and barren path made of flesh. He felt confused and asked, “Xin Huo, what are these bad things that you were talking about?”

  “The gods and devils are very strong, even if they are just the low-class gods, they are still not easily messed around with and their bodies possess immense vitalities. Since they were all killed here instead of dying in a natural way, the vitalities in their bodies would not be completely dispersed.”

  Xin Huo stood on the lamp pith and looked around while saying, “With the number of gods and devils buried here with the resilient vitalities that have yet to completely disperse ... just imagine the horrifying scene that these factors would beget. The amalgamation of their enduring vitality, demonic Qi and animosity that was wrought from their deaths could only lead to the spawning of something especially malicious. Other than that, with this much flesh around here, corpse demons would probably be walking everywhere in this forbidden area … Brat Yue, visualize the Sui Sovereign now. The Sui Sovereign is a holy divinity and he will be able to repel any evil around you!”

  Zhong Yue shivered and he continued walking while holding the lamp, but at a much slower pace.

  With the protection of Xin Huo, the demonic Qi and seals of the gods were blocked outside of his radiant barrier while Zhong Yue was constantly maintaining the state of visualization, forming the Sui Sovereign behind his back.

  This Sui Sovereign was twelve feet tall, with the head of a dragon, body of a human and tail of a dragon. He looked marvelous and dignified as it repelled the evil around him.

  Zheee——

  A Sword Qi flew out and landed on the ground before turning into a tiny and exquisite Xiang Dragon that was running wildly on the ground. Another Wood Sword Qi flew out and became a sapling as it landed on the ground. Both the Xiang Dragon and the sapling were incredibly small and they were running everywhere on the ground.

  Zhong Yue armed himself to teeth and he continued walking carefully while he thought, ‘It would have been better if I have a soul weapon such as the ten malefic weapons….’

  The ten malefic weapons were all incredibly strong, but they were also very hard to be controlled at the same time, making them a double-edged sword.

  As they slowly walked deeper into the forbidden place, the flesh on their path gradually decreased and Xin Huo said with a serious tone, “The amount of flesh here has decreased, which means that I was right, something evil has been spawned. Huh? There’s a corpse here, what kind of people would have their flesh siphoned away upon walking all the way here? No… th
is man died of exhaustion before having his flesh siphoned away! Strange, strange!”

  Zhong Yue also noticed the corpse kneeling in front of the wall of flesh with a broken sword held in its hands. The corpse also appeared to be a human.

  Other than that, even though the sword was broken, its length still reached a shocking five feet long!

  Judging from the corpse, the man should be a very burly man and all sorts of totem carvings covered his bones. Zhong Yue was stunned after he took a look at the bones as this man branded the totem carvings on his bones in order to increase his bodily strength!

  The totem carvings on his bones included dragons, phoenixes and other magical creatures, suggesting it to be one of the most valuable heritages from Swords Gate!

  Under the corpse, the ground was completely devoid of flesh and the rocky grounds were exposed to the air while carvings were visible on the rocks.

  “I am the Swords Gate’s fourteenth headmaster, Yu Tianya from the Yu Clan. After knowing that I have not much time left, I took my sword and entered this forbidden place, cutting down a total of eighteen thousand demons before depleting my remaining life force.”

  Zhong Yue read the words carved on the rocks and he said shockingly, “This is the fourteenth headmaster of Swords Gate! Why did he enter this place and die here?”

  Xin Huo shook his flaming head and replied, “He must have known that this forbidden place was a spawning ground for these corpse demons and that if too many of them were spawned, the seals of the gods would eventually be destroyed by them, causing the devil souls to completely erupt and wash the entire Great Wilderness with blood. He came here to end his life with a noble purpose after knowing he had little time left, which was to cull the demons here. He did not die in vain as the demons he killed must have been incredibly strong or he would not even die of exhaustion otherwise. Pick up the broken sword and let’s go. The sword of a Swords Gate’s headmaster must be extraordinary….”